Permissions don't stay repaired

Question

Level 1

11 points

Permissions don't stay repaired

I have run verify permissions three times in the last couple days. Each time I get a long list of issues. Each time I repair them and it says they are fixed. But when I run again they are there.

I have discovered this as I worked through another issue.

There is a screenshot of my permissions issues here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5215448?start=15&tstart=0

Please note I have a small amount of HD space left and have posted also about removing a virtual machine partition in this discussion section. I am just trying to see how this permissions issue fits into the big picture.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

TL

MacBook Pro (15-inch 2.4/2.2 GHz), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Aug 7, 2013 1:56 AM

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Answer 1

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Aug 7, 2013 2:00 AM in response to tsl90

As long as the report ends up with 'Permissions repair complete' then, as far as permissions go, you are fine. You can ignore the various statements in the report:

Permissions you can ignore on 10.5 onwards:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448

Using 'should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r--' as an example, you will see the that the permissions are not changed, but the | indicates a different location. This is because an update to Leopard onwards changed the location of a number of system components.

Poster rccharles has provided this description of what it all means:

drwxrwxrwx

d = directory

r = read

w = write

x = executeable program

drwxrwxrwx

| | |

| | all other users not in first two types

| |

| group

|

owner

a little more info

Before the user had read & write. A member of the group had read.

After, only the user had read & write.

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Answer 2

tsl90 Author

Level 1

11 points

Aug 7, 2013 2:04 AM in response to Klaus1

Thanks for the quick reply. I will do some reading there.

To clarify:

It does say that the repair is complete. But then when I try to verify again all the problems are still listed. If they were fixed shouldn't the next verify show no problems?

Thanks again.

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